Need Scope with longer eye relief...help

Mount Sweetness

Mount Sweetness

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Looking for recommendations on a scope with a little more generous eye relief. Looking for slightly more than the standard 3in to 3.5in

Will only be used on a .17hmr, but the way the gun fits me and the room I have to move the scope back.....I am finding that an extra inch or so of relief would be ideal.

Not very concerned with magnification. 2-7, 3-9....whatever

Got any tips, any brands/models to recommend?
 
Some shotgun scopes come with 6" eye relief, other than that, maybe a scout scope? If it can fit your platform.

I am not aware of any mainstream rifle scopes with 4-4.5" of eye relief.
 
What is the catch with these "shotgun scopes"? Just got done reading about a Bushnell Banner with 6in relief, but have never looked through one...

How do they provide such eye relief when others can't?
 
What is preventing you from moving the scope far enough rearward to give you proper distance to your eye? I'm wondering if its a different scope mount you need, not scope??
 
Thanks for all the info

Griz...
The gun is a Ruger 77 with fixed positions for their integrated rings. Do not want to mount base/ring adapters of any kind, want to keep scope low.

I am thinking Leupold VI as recommended by "bjjzak", these are said to have relief of over 4in.
 
I am thinking Leupold VI as recommended by "bjjzak", these are said to have relief of over 4in.
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Only at the minimum magnification settings.At the maximum magnification settings the eye relief drops to 3.6" or 3.7" in most models.

The Zeiss Conquest 3x9x40 has 4" of eye relief at all magnifications.
 
I'm also looking at the Beartooth Comb kit, a more natural cheek weld would help get me on the scope much quicker. The stock is slim and doesn't mount like my other rifles, combine this with rings slightly higher than I am used to and a scope with poor eye relief and I end up crawling forward on the stock...slow to get on target, not natural.

Anyone use a Beartooth?
 
I am also looking for a scope with "generous" eye relief.

The Nikon Monarch 2 - 8 x 32, 2.5 - 10 x 40, are marketed as having "4 inches of constant, non-critical eye relief".

I have not tried one, but will be checking them out to see if I like them. I really dislike searching for the eye relief sweetspot in many of the scopes I have owned or tried.
 
ginseng503 said:
...I really dislike searching for the eye relief sweetspot in many of the scopes I have owned or tried.
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x2

I find it especially when I'm shooting from a different position, such as prone, and the scope that was set up for bench or standing shot keeps blacking out on me. I'm more carefull now to try the scope in various positions before tightening down the rings. I'm hoping this finds some happy medium.
 
stubblejumper said:
Only at the minimum magnification settings.At the maximum magnification settings the eye relief drops to 3.6" or 3.7" in most models.

The Zeiss Conquest 3x9x40 has 4" of eye relief at all magnifications.
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Zeiss measures eye relief from the glass and Leupold measures from the rim. Once you knock of that quarter inch off you are left with the 3-9 Zeiss tieing a 4" eye relief Leupold at one power and losing at all the other powers. The 3-9 is a best case scenario most but perhaps not all Zeiss have a lot shorter eye relief than the 3-9. There are plenty of Leupolds with more than 4 inches as well.
5 minutes and a flashlight test will tell you what the actual eye-relief of a scope is, and in the case of 3-9 Conquest it will also show that it is neither 4 inches nor constant. There is a 1/4" of variation from highest to lowest, and it works backwards on that particular scope. The shortest eye-relief is at the lowest power and the longest at the highest. I have no idea why.
I like my Zeiss scopes, and my Leupolds. Claiming that the Zeiss has longer eye-relief is just wrong.
 
Dogleg said:
5 minutes and a flashlight test will tell you what the actual eye-relief of a scope is, and in the case of 3-9 Conquest it will also show that it is neither 4 inches nor constant. There is a 1/4" of variation from highest to lowest, and it works backwards on that particular scope. The shortest eye-relief is at the lowest power and the longest at the highest. I have no idea why.
I like my Zeiss scopes, and my Leupolds. Claiming that the Zeiss has longer eye-relief is just wrong.
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Hi Dogleg,

I think I know what you're talking about re: the flashlight test, but can you explain what your process is? I'm curious to check out the eye relief on a couple of my scopes.

Thanks,
Stirling
 
Mount Sweetness said:
Looking for recommendations on a scope with a little more generous eye relief. Looking for slightly more than the standard 3in to 3.5in

Will only be used on a .17hmr, but the way the gun fits me and the room I have to move the scope back.....I am finding that an extra inch or so of relief would be ideal.

Not very concerned with magnification. 2-7, 3-9....whatever

Got any tips, any brands/models to recommend?
Click to expand...

Burris recently introduced the Timberline series as a replacement for their well-respected Short Mag series. The Timberlines are now produced overseas (in the Phillipines, I believe), and feature smaller objective lenses (e.g. 3-9x32mm) as well as a good eye relief of 3.75"-5".

I haven't handled one, but they've gotten good reviews on the levergun site that I frequent. The longer eye relief allows you to mount the scope forward of the hammer obviating the need for a spur.

I believe parallax is at 100yds, but that's still workable with your 17hmr, especially if you tend to shoot at longer ranges. Prices are reasonable... check out Gobles... they're the only ones that I know who stock it.
 
I will look into the Timberline series.

I have noticed that even Cabelas sells a cheap line of scopes specifically for lever guns as well. I have never looked through one but looking at the stats...I cannot believe the eye relief on these lever scopes.

I need to get over to BassPro or Cabelas and get my hands on various scopes and TRY before BUY...

Way too many options and don't know if I can trust advertised specifics....there has got to be some catch with 5 or 6inch eye relief that I am unaware of. The specifics list a great field of view as well....what gives?
 
Stickhunter,
Bend stiff piece of paper into an "L" shape. Lay the rifle or just the scope if it isn't mounted on the table and shine a flashlight though the objective lens. Lay the paper underneath it with the short leg of the L standing up behind the occular lens so the light shines on it. Close to the lens it will make a big circle, as you move it farther away the circle will focus down to a dot then start to get bigger again. Wiggle it back and forth until you are satisfied that you have the smallest dot that you can get and measure the distance from the paper to the lens or the edge of the tube depending on whether you are trying to establish an optical distance, or as in the case with me, how much room there is before the scope nails my forehead. Try it at different powers
You can learn quite a bit, like "constant eye relief" means whatever the advertising agent wants it to mean and that whoever writes the spec sheet for Bushnell is on glue. I just did a 3-9 Conquest and got from almost 4" at 9 power and 3 1/2" at 3. Once again, I don't know why that is backwards but it is backwards. What it isn't, is constant.
 
I looked at the Burris Timberline for a Ruger Hawkeye and found it wouldn't fit without extension rings. It has a pretty short tube forward of the turrets.

I ended up with a Vortex Viper 2-7X32. Eye relief is advertised at 3.7-4 inches. I've had no problems at all with the scope and think it is a great value for the quality, fit, and finish.

The other scope line I was led toward was Sightron. Specifically their Big Sky series (SllB). Eye relief on the scopes I checked were all 3.7/3.8ish up to 4.0/4.1ish. Heard a lot of good things about Sightron but never used one.

Cheers,
 
5 minutes and a flashlight test will tell you what the actual eye-relief of a scope is, and in the case of 3-9 Conquest it will also show that it is neither 4 inches nor constant. There is a 1/4" of variation from highest to lowest,
Click to expand...

1/4" of variation is pretty constant compared to my vxIII 6.5x20x40 which varied by 1.3" over the magnification range.
 
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